By Samuel Shen and Kennix Chim
Agricultural Bank of China’s (601288.SS) $19 billion IPO made a lackluster debut in Shanghai, weighing on the market and underscoring the difficulty other Chinese banks will face tapping investors for billions more.
The IPO, a world record $22 billion if an overallotment option is exercised, and dual-listing in Hong Kong on Friday will complete AgBank’s transformation from technical insolvency to a sprawling giant with assets of close to $1.4 trillion and a customer base of 320 million, larger than the population of the United States.
